Her Cowboy Billionaire Bodyguard Page 3

“Gramma, I’m back.” Lily entered her grandparents’ house, where she’d been living for the past one year and four days. It wasn’t like she needed to number the days because they were bad. But it wasn’t her ideal living conditions, and everyone involved knew it—including Kent.

  Though he didn’t know where she was.

  Yet.

  That thought had her pulling her phone out to call Beau immediately. She couldn’t put her grandparents in danger. She wouldn’t. And she felt the circle on Kent’s noose closing in on her location.

  The only two people who knew where she was for certain both sat in their living room, the TV on in front of them and both of them fast asleep though the clock hadn’t chimed nine times yet.

  She shook her head, knowing they’d gotten up hours and hours ago and definitely needed this mid-morning nap. So she left them snoozing in their recliners and went up the stairs to the two bedrooms on the second floor that only she’d set foot in over the past of the last decade.

  Lily went through the door on the right and looked out the window. The snow hadn’t hit as hard in Jackson, though there was still about half a foot in the backyard. Much like last night, she thought through what it would be like to live at the lodge full time.

  Maybe the chef there could teach her how to cook. Maybe Beau would like a stained glass window over the front door. Maybe she could get on a horse and learn to ride.

  There were so many maybes, Lily didn’t know what to do with them all. She left her room and went back downstairs to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. She must’ve been too loud filling the kettle with water and setting it on the ancient stovetop, because her grandma joined her a few moments after she’d lit the flame.

  “How was your meeting?” she asked, patting her curls and looking still a bit sleepy.

  Lily turned from the stove and stepped into her grandma’s embrace. She’d always loved her mother’s parents. Loved the simple life they led on the farm. Loved the soft, powdery scent of her grandmother’s papery skin.

  “It was okay,” she said. “You got my message about the weather?” Her grandma had a phone, but with how often she checked it, Lily didn’t count it as a reliable way to communicate.

  “Yes. It was really coming down. I’m glad you stayed.”

  Lily stepped back, a sigh leaking out of her mouth the way air did out of a balloon. “He was…nice.” Nicer than she’d thought he’d be. Hairier too. “Wore a big old cowboy hat and had this bushy beard.” She smiled, a giggle sounding a second later. “But his eyes….” She shook her head just thinking about the pair of eyes Beau Whittaker had. “He could see things,” she finished. “That man doesn’t miss much.”

  “Well.” Gramma moved over to the cupboard and took out two teacups. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? A lawyer who can find a way out of the mess you’re in.”

  That was exactly what Lily wanted. But for some reason, she didn’t want it to be Beau. She didn’t want him to know every little detail about her past. Because while he wouldn’t make a professional judgment on her, she felt certain he most definitely would form an opinion about her personally.

  And she wanted him to think the best of her.

  Which is stupid, she told herself as the kettle started to sing. She didn’t know Beau Whittaker, and he didn’t know her. Even if he read through the ludicrous accusations Kent had filed against her, he wouldn’t truly know her.

  No one did.

  Not her greatest fans. Not her sisters, not really.

  Gramma put her hand on Lily’s arm and said, “Are you all right?”

  Lily looked into her grandma’s watery blue eyes. She didn’t miss much either, and Lily realized she had someone right in front of her who saw her. Who knew her. Who loved her.

  Lily shrugged. “No worse than yesterday.”

  “I would’ve thought you’d be better than yesterday.” Gramma poured the hot water over the tea bags and started stirring her cup. Lily picked up her spoon and whisked the other cup, the fragrance of oranges and honey lifting into the air with the steam.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t know if he’s the right one.”

  “Tell me about him.” Gramma sat at the counter, lifted her tea cup to her lips, and took the smallest of sips. Everything Gramma did was tiny, and she ate like a bird. It would be a miracle if she drank even half the cup of tea.

  But Lily would drink all of hers and maybe more. “He’s different than I expected. If I’d passed him on the street, lawyer would not have been how I would’ve labeled him.”

  “No? What would you have labeled him?”

  “Mountain man,” she said instantly, ignoring her grandma’s shocked face. “No, really, Gramma. He was Mountain Man Joe.” She laughed, the sound wild and wonderful. “I almost blasted him and his brother with pepper spray. They’re both so tall and so big, and they answered the door together.”

  “Well,” Gramma said, starting her sentences with the word she usually did. “I thought you said he was the best lawyer in the state.”

  “He is.”

  “Then why wouldn’t you hire him?”

  Why not indeed? Lily’s heart raced around like a squirrel who’d just won the acorn lottery, and she knew exactly why. But intellectually, she needed a man like Beau. No, she thought. She needed a lawyer like Beau.

  The recliner in the living room squealed and the footrest clunked as her grandpa put it down. “Oh, Pops is awake.” Gramma bustled around the kitchen, making another cup of tea for her husband. Pops had served in the Vietnam War, and he had a leg that still bothered him from time to time, especially if the weather went south as it had last night.

  So Lily let Gramma hurry a cup of tea into the living room while she sat at the counter, thinking. Gramma returned a few moments later and set two pieces of bread in the toaster. She didn’t say anything as she pulled raspberry jam out of the fridge.

  Lily herself had helped make those preserves this summer, and she sensed a lecture coming as Gramma buttered the toast and put a healthy amount of jam on each slice. She had everything loaded onto a plate before she looked at Lily again.

  “Well?” she said, making it seem like a question. “Why are you still sitting there? When are you going to call that lawyer and hire him?”

  “I’m not sure I’m going to hire him.”

  “Oh, pish posh.” Gramma made a scoffing sound that almost sounded like a cough. “Yes, you are. Go on and put yourself out of your misery.” With that, she left Lily in the kitchen and walked into the living room with the toast.

  Lily did not call Beau right away, thank you very much. She sipped her tea and stared out the window. She listened to the blinging sounds of the game show in the other room and played a game on her phone.

  But her grandma was right. She was going to hire Beau, and the sooner she did, the sooner she could move into that big lodge up the canyon and get things done. Close this chapter. Make sure her grandparents were safe.

  She seized onto the words wafting through her head. One door closes and another one opens….

  Problem was, she wasn’t sure which door was closing and which one was opening. She felt trapped between two worlds, with no bridge to help her get across.

  Five

  Beau’s phone didn’t sound on Thursday. Maybe that was because he’d put it on silent, as his mother had texted and called a couple of times. They set up a lunch date for the next day, and he fixed a rain gutter on the house that had become clogged with leaves during the storm, causing problems with how the water from the melting snow could drain.

  But Lily didn’t call, and for some reason, that bothered Beau. She hadn’t taken his reference sheet, and she’d barely asked him any questions about the law or his past cases. He kept reminding himself that his previous clients in his new business hadn’t either. The fact was, they knew he knew the law forward and backward. What they wanted to know was if they could stomach living under the same roof as him, large as it was.

  Friday dawned with
the scent of yeast and cinnamon, and Beau groaned. He loved Celia, but his mother was also coming to the lodge that day, and she’d bring something equally as delicious and calorie-laden.

  So while he didn’t want to, he put on his gym clothes and went downstairs to the room where several pieces of exercise equipment were kept. Bree had insisted that guests liked seeing that there was a gym at the places they stayed, but Beau had literally never seen a guest get up while on vacation and work out.

  He barely wanted to do it on non-vacation days. But now that he wasn’t running ten miles a minute in his law office, the beard wasn’t the only thing that had changed about Beau. So he sweated through an episode of his favorite science fiction drama and went upstairs to eat the sticky monkey bread Celia was practically famous for.

  “There you are,” she said. “How did you sneak past me?” She set a small pitcher on the counter, and Beau peered into it. It looked somewhat like cream, but when he poked the tip of his pinky finger in it, he found it was frosting. Happiness filled him with the simplest of things. Cinnamon monkey bread and frosting this morning, apparently.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe I’ve finally perfected my ninja skills.”

  Celia laughed and said, “Stop it.” She set a couple of plates on the counter and turned to get breakfast out of the oven. “So, who was that woman who was here the other night?” So much fake casualness rode in her voice that Beau’s defenses went up. And he didn’t believe for a moment that Celia didn’t already know.

  “A potential client,” he said, his mood darkening and the happiness dropping a notch. After all, Lily had made no attempt to contact him, and it had been thirty-six hours now. She didn’t have any more questions, and Beau wondered if he’d hear from her at all.

  “She’s Lily Everett,” Celia said. “Of the Everett Sisters.”

  Beau looked at her, and asked, “Oh, yeah? Should I know them?”

  Celia scoffed and picked up a dishrag to wipe down the counter. “Of course you should know them, Beau. Their Christmas album is the one Bree plays around here like they’re the only music group to ever record holiday music.”

  Beau tilted his head, trying to hear the Christmas tunes Bree inflicted on them starting the day after Halloween. “I guess,” he said, the music escaping him.

  “When is Bree going to be back?” Celia asked.

  “Tuesday,” Beau said, pulling off a chunk of monkey bread and popping it straight into his mouth, sans frosting. “At least that’s what she told me earlier this week before she left.”

  “Have you heard how her mother is doing?”

  “No.” Sudden guilt pulled through Beau. He probably should’ve texted Bree to find out how things were going in Phoenix. Her parents had made the move to warmer climates about a decade ago, but her mother had taken a spill down the stairs last weekend. “I’ll call her today.”

  Celia gave half a shrug like she didn’t care what Beau did, but he knew she’d brought it up so he would call Bree. He probably should’ve known to do that without her prompting. Graham would’ve. Andrew too. Now Eli…. Eli was usually so preoccupied with something or other, he probably would’ve forgotten too.

  Or in Beau’s case, not even known it was something he should’ve done. Sure, Beau was great at keeping up with his clients and making sure they knew what was happening every step of the way. But he was also so very used to divorcing his feelings from whatever case he was working on. No emotion. Follow the law. Find a way to use the law to win. Prepare the argument.

  None of that required him to consider how other people felt or how they were doing.

  Just another reason he’d closed the law office and moved up to the lodge. He certainly didn’t need the money, not since his father’s death and Beau’s inheritance had catapulted him to billionaire status.

  But he felt like he was missing something. Maybe it was the human connection. Beau honestly wasn’t sure.

  “I heard your mom is coming up for lunch,” Celia said next, and Beau ripped off half the monkey bread and put it on his plate.

  “She is. You’re welcome to stay. I think she’s bringing sandwiches from Going Ham.”

  “That’s what she said.”

  Celia really wasn’t very good at concealing what was coming next. Beau could hear the inflections in her voice from a mile away. This time, she was trying to sound disinterested when it was very clear she wanted to stay for lunch. Had probably already put in her sandwich order for later that day.

  “What’s she bringing you?” he asked.

  Celia’s eyes flew to his, a touch of alarm in them. He grinned at her, and she started laughing. “You think you’re so smart.”

  “I’m not stupid,” he said, chuckling along with her. “Let me guess…turkey club on sourdough.” But it wasn’t a guess at all. Beau had seen her eat that exact sandwich before.

  When she swiped at the air and said, “Oh, you,” he knew he’d gotten it right.

  Hours later, after he’d gone out to the stables and finally let the horses back into the pasture, after he’d spent a healthy amount of the morning talking to Bareback, and after he’d showered, he returned to the kitchen to find his mother there with three sacks of food.

  “Ma,” he said, sweeping one arm around her and pulling her in for a hug. Oh, how he loved his mother. No matter what was going on in Beau’s life, she’d been there, supported him, and loved him back.

  After the disaster with Deirdre, she hadn’t chastised him for getting involved with a client. She didn’t comment about his move up the canyon other than to show up and help him clean his house in town. She ran her fingers down the side of his face now, a look of love and adoration on her face.

  “How’s my sweet son?” she asked with a smile.

  “Doin’ fine.” He hadn’t told her about the meeting with Lily, but he knew the whole story would be pouring from him before he finished his roast beef sandwich. “How’s Tate?”

  “Oh, he’s fine.” She started unpacking their food, and Beau recognized this tactic. She’d done the same thing with Admiral Church, and then her next boyfriend, Clint Jacobson here.

  And her new man, Jason Carter, was at least a decade younger than her. Beau understood the dating pool in Coral Canyon wasn’t all that big, and he just wanted his mother to be happy. Since her husband’s death almost four years ago, everything had changed. All of his brothers had come home, at least for a while. They’d all found someone to love and start families with.

  And somehow, Beau and his mother hadn’t. He wasn’t sure if she was really ready to move on, but he admired her for trying. As for Beau…well, he just wasn’t sure how to pick the right woman, as all of his past relationships would suggest he was a great judge of character when it came to the courtroom, but absolutely dismal when it came to matters of the heart.

  “I heard you had an exciting visitor this week,” she said, shooting him a quick look.

  “Not really,” he said, instant annoyance springing up inside him. “I mean, a potential client came out to the lodge. I haven’t heard anything more from her though.” And dang, if those words didn’t practically burn his throat.

  At the same time, he wasn’t entirely disappointed. Perhaps if she hired someone else to take care of her legal troubles, he could still be her shoulder of support through whatever lay ahead for her. He had her number; he could call her and ask her to dinner.

  The thought appealed to him so much, even if it would make three giant meals in a single day.

  He inwardly scoffed at his own foolishness. Surely a woman like Lily Everett wouldn’t be able to drop everything in her life and go to dinner with him that night. She’d even said she needed to check with her manager. He wondered if she ran all of her personal calendar items past this manager.

  “I lost you,” his mom said, bringing Beau out of his head and back to the present conversation.

  “I’m right here, Ma.” He sat at the counter and ripped open his bag of chips. “W
hat were you saying?”

  “I asked how the new business was going.” She sat beside him and sipped from her soda.

  “It’s…okay.” He glanced at her. “I might be a bit bored. I’d like another case.” If anything, then he’d have something to focus on this holiday season besides the fact that he was alone when everyone else in his family wasn’t. Oh, and maybe the sting of his father’s death wouldn’t hit him so squarely in the chest either.

  “Didn’t Eli say he’d help you advertise?”

  “Yeah, but Ma, this isn’t something you advertise. It’s a word-of-mouth thing.” At least in Beau’s head it was. He didn’t want where he lived, or what he did, to really be out there in the world. The entire point of what he’d started doing was to keep women safe, out of reach of those who wanted to hurt them, until Beau could make sure the law was on their side and they had the protection they needed.

  If he started splashing his name and face on billboards, that wouldn’t be possible.

  Celia entered the kitchen, and Beau exchanged a glance with his mom that indicated this particular conversation needed to be over.

  “Ah, turkey club,” Celia said with a smile. “How are you, Amanda?”

  The two women started talking, leaving Beau to his own thoughts. He enjoyed their company, glad he didn’t have to go through another monotonous day without at least a bit of interesting conversation.

  As he put the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth, his phone screen lit up. He choked at the name sitting on the device.

  Lily Everett.

  He made a grab for the phone, but his mother had seen it too. “Who’s Lily Everett?”

  Beau made a grunting noise, as his mouth was still full of roast beef and bread.

  “She sings for the Everett Sisters,” Celia said, and Beau’s grunt turned into a growl.

  “The Everett Sisters?” His mother’s voice could’ve caused an avalanche had there been enough snow.

  Beau shook his head and practically sprinted from the room, hoping he could finish chewing and swallow before he missed the call.